


Birch

by tea_for_lupin



Series: The Herball [3]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Beginnings, Birch, Gen, Healing, John is a Very Good Doctor, M/M, Rebirth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-17
Updated: 2013-10-17
Packaged: 2017-12-29 15:27:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1007029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tea_for_lupin/pseuds/tea_for_lupin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sherlock erupts from the unpromising earth. <em>Tedious,</em> he says, and <em>Well, John,</em> he says.</p>
<p>Loving hat-tips to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/users/aderyn">aderyn</a> and to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/users/wiggleofjudas/pseuds/wiggleofjudas">wiggleofjudas</a> for all their inspiration.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Birch

Sherlock erupts from the unpromising earth. _Tedious,_ he says, and _Well, John,_ he says. Shakes catkins from curls, sloughs leaf litter like shedding a shirt. There's green at his fingertips.

_You bastard,_ John says, _I left flowers on your grave._

Sun-bright _xerochrysum_ , sharp-edged and golden as lions. As John.

_I kept one._

Three winters' cold: the ground more disturbed, harder than Sherlock expected; rocky. Less room to root his deductions. Less right.

John sighs. _Come here._ Washes the palimpsest of dirt from the skin, gentle down to the birch-bark-whiteness, written with veins. Sherlock bends in the wake of John's breath. Honey is in it, and tannin, and balm. John can't help it, the healing. What he does.

There's tea, later, alterative and bitter and green; it tastes familiar, of leaves.

**Author's Note:**

> [Birch, tree of inception and new beginnings.](http://www.thegoddesstree.com/trees/Birch.htm)  
> [Xerochrysum, paper daisy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerochrysum_viscosum). Yes, I know it's an Australian native.


End file.
